Designing your life

Any successful project requires a design, a plan. How much more – something far more important – our life itself!

The Daffodil Principle

A lady was taken by her daughter to see the “Daffodil Garden.”   Here’s what she says. “Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.   There were five acres of flowers.

 “But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn.

“It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.”

The Daffodil Principle

Carolyn pointed to a well kept A farm house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house.

On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking” was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one. “50,000 bulbs,” it read.

The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.”

The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

There it was, The Daffodil Principle.”

Overview

  • Sharpen Your Focus
    • Redirect your affections
    • Realign your priorities
    • Release your life
  • State Your Mission
  • Strengthen Your Armour

Sharpen your Focus

Alas we are living in a world with upside down values!  Black is no longer black!  The Hebrew prophet Isaiah warns us of what will happen to any society that has upside down values:

Isaiah 5:20″Woe to those who call evil good and  good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness ………..”  God wants us to wake up before it is too late!

Redirect your affections

Redirect your affections

All relationships should come secondary to God

All relationships get routed through God.

As Christ’s disciple, I have learned to hold all things lightly – my reputation, my possessions, my rights, my loved ones, my life – willing to let go for God to do what He pleases or for God to allow anyone else to do anything they please.

That is hard but  necessary if Christ is truly to be my sovereign Lord!

Redirect your affections

Corrie Ten Boom when met by the soldier who killed her sister Betsie after a message on forgiveness, hugs him with the love of God.

Luke 14:27 “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Jesus and only Jesus should be our priority. We read about Mary and Martha last time and Jesus says “only one thing is needed…Mary has chosen the better part….”

Realign your priorities

When a man wanting to follow Jesus says “let me bury my father first”, Jesus says, “let the dead bury the dead”. This was probably more than just a burial ceremony. His father was probably alive and it was putting Jesus second to what he planned to get from and/or do for his father.

Release your life

 Hannah released her problems to God

Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. 1 Sam 1:18

Release your life

“The man who has died to self  has no ambitions – and so he has nothing to be jealous about

He has no reputation – and so he has nothing to fight about

He has no possessions – therefore nothing to worry about

He has no rights – so therefore he cannot suffer any wrongs

He is already dead – so no one can kill him.”

Release your life

Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even their own life–such a person cannot be my disciple.

To the man with much wealth Jesus says “sell everything you have and follow me”…

  • Let go of your failures
  • Let go of your successes
  • Let go of your relationships
  • Let go of your assets

State Your Mission

Plan from finish to start

Jesus says:

Luke 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?

What do you want your epitaph to be?

Reflect on what you have done over the past year?

State your mission

Write down your personal mission statement

State your mission

n order to do this we need to plan from finish to start.

 If someone were to describe us in 1 sentance what do we want that to state. Let us stop and think of our mission and what do we want our mission statement to be.

 My mission statement is “to know him and to make him known through God’s word. My focus will be in the dark areas in the world” what is yours?.Write it down. Share it.

Designing your Life

Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and sons, brothers and sistersyes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

Designing your Life

We have become too soft to scale spiritual heights ….. our hymns and sermons create for us a religion of consolation and pleasantness.  We overlook the place of the thorns, the blood and the cross. –  Tozer

Discussion

Write and share your mission statement

Based on your mission statements and the discussion in part 1, prepare a mission for your group

Make an action plan for the mission statement

Share with larger group

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